The Glow Phone

Overview

WHO

Art Center College of Design

WHAT

Fifteen of Art Center’s standout students teamed up with Eastman engineering and marketing specialists to design new applications for Eastman Tritan™ copolyester in consumer electronic devices. The workshop produced several exciting concepts including the “Glow Phone” created by Josh Nakaya, Kory Victor, Marcus Koosmann and Grant Poznick.

MATERIAL

“With the Glow Phone concept, one of the characteristics of Tritan™ that we really wanted to focus on, and found most interesting, was its clarity,” explained Nakaya. The team developed a process to treat Tritan™ with an optical brightener so that when ultra-violet LEDs strike it, the phone lights up a different color. The glow could be limited to the edges of the phone or cover the entire surface, which could be opaque, even jet black without requiring paint. Additionally, the clarity of Tritan™ produced a high level of light transmittance.

SUCCESS

“So you could have a series of LEDs within this that are different color frequencies,” Nakaya explained. “This could be used to color code information. For example, the device could glow one color for incoming calls, another for text messages, and another for calendar reminders. Or specific colors could be assigned to particular callers. Now we’re using different ways of communicating information and not utilizing just the small screen on the phone itself.”